Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The past two classes I took a look at how I was rolling from a different point of view. Sure, rolling is fun and challenging and keeping it light helps all of us improve. But I considered for a moment why sometimes rolling must be taken much more seriously.

Sometimes we seek a defensive position to relax and gather strength to escape or recover from an intense play. But I have never been happy at anytime gathering recovering from a weaker position; bottom mount, bottom side control, even close guard (although neutral). I would much rather fight to an offensive position and recover there. Knee on belly, full mount, or side control are much easier places to catch your wind and get your head back in the game.

Here is why this is important for me and should be for everyone.

Imagine for a moment that your opponent could throw punches and drop knees on you. How effective would recovering be from bottom mount with a heavy hitter sitting on top of you. Not very. And just because we train in BJJ should not give us a false sense of confidence in the real world. If it came down to it, getting hit in the face may throw us off our finely tuned grappling game in a real fight.

So from now on, if I am stuck in a bad place, I will imagine that my opponent has the option to hit me. And that will be a good motivation to escape. Unless, of course, I have them tied up. And if I am on top, I will imagine how many times I can drop a bomb on my opponent; without doing so of course. Because I am a nice guy... ;) That, I think, will add a realism and urgency to my game and make me a better fighter.